1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile telecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for two-way telecommunications using a wireless telephone on an aircraft, and even more particularly on an aircraft that is maneuvering under its own power, i.e., is taxiing on the runway or is in flight.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current airline practice is to allow normal personal cellphone use only while the aircraft is at the gate and the doors are open. The use of personal wireless phones while on-board a maneuvering aircraft is typically prohibited because the radio frequency (RF) emissions from the wireless phone can interfere with the aircraft's systems, for example, communication systems, navigation systems, etc. Additionally, an aircraft in flight provides an on-board cellular terminal user with line of site to many cellphone base stations simultaneously, which may overload or interfere with the ground networks if the cellphone simultaneously transmits signals to several base stations.
Conventional air-to-ground telecommunication systems, such as the Claircom AT&T Wireless system and the GTE Airfone system used on board many commercial airliners in the USA and satellite communications systems used on some international airliners, require a passenger to use a telephone installed in the seatback or armrest of the aircraft to initiate a telephone call. The seatback phone connects the aircraft passenger to a ground-based radio station which in turn connects to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The PSTN is the everyday telephone network (local and long distance) infrastructure operated by telephone carriers, such as AT&T, MCI, Sprint, etc. However, the passengers are still prohibited from using the personal phone to which they are accustomed, depriving them of their normal service subscriptions and also their personal phone's features, such as speed dial and personal phone book. The passenger also pays higher access fees to use the seatback phone installed in the aircraft, and it is very cumbersome, or in some cases impossible, to receive incoming calls on the seatback phones, resulting in passengers being unable to receive calls at all during the flight.
There is a need, therefore, for an improved telecommunication system that will allow the use of a personal wireless telephone while on board a maneuvering aircraft.